Characteristics of the CeBiTec post-graduate programs

The first PhD program, the International NRW Graduate School in Bioinformatics and Genome Research, was endowed in 2001 by grants from the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Research of the state North Rhine-Westphalia (MIWF NRW) and from German Research Foundation (DFG). Researchers from distinct faculties collaborate in this program as one faculty to define and supervise three-year PhD projects. Highly-qualified students from the fields of biology, bioinformatics, biochemistry, biotechnology or biomathematics are selected by means of international tendering. The Graduate School combines wet lab molecular biology research with bioinformatics methods for algorithmic data analysis and data management. Highest standards of PhD education are ensured through yearly written progress reports, half-yearly scientific retreats and soft skill trainings. Funds for travelling and publications foster the international visibility of the research work. Members of the Graduate School contribute to research areas such as structural RNA alignments, genome wide synteny studies and comparative assemblies, sequence based gene cluster analyses, biological data partitioning and the integration of metabolic networks into a virtual 3D cell by developing dedicated algorithms and software solutions (see publications). Currently, there are 20 PhD projects ongoing and 57 students have successfully finished their PhD education, three of them today are professors at German or foreign universities.

Expanding the structural components and experiences of the first Graduate School, the CLIB Graduate Cluster Industrial Biotechnology was initiated in 2009. Characteristics of the Graduate Cluster are: the joined initiative of the three partner universities HHU Düsseldorf, TU Dortmund, Bielefeld University and the close connection to industry by ”CLIB2021 Cluster of Industrial Biotechnology” as a partner. In 2010, the International Graduate Program Cell Signaling Networks, funded by Bielefeld University, was established at the CeBiTec adopting the structural properties and experiences of the previous schools. Six PhD fellowships are provided for three years to foster the understanding of the mechanisms, regulation and functions of cellular signaling networks. Through close interdisciplinary interaction between bioinformaticians and theoretical life scientists on the one hand and experimental biochemists, molecular biologists and geneticists on the other hand, an optimal integration and exploitation of available data and deep level theory formation complementary to on-going experiment driven-projects is aimed at.

Ongoing associations and future perspectives

Actually three PhD programs are administrated by the Graduate Center in close collaboration with the speakers and coordinators. Convinced by the success of these interdisciplinary PhD programs the CeBiTec prospects to stabilize the existing programs and to develop additional PhD programs in newly emerging research areas.